At last it's Lucky Eddie

Even the bookies were waving Ferrari flags at the GP yesterday, reports ALAN KENNEDY

At last it's Lucky Eddie

This was a win made in heaven. Eddie Irvine, the wise-cracking playboy Formula One driver and spiritual leader of Ferrari, grabbed his first victory by overcoming the odds.

Not only that, the bookies can breathe a sigh of relief. There can be no suggestions that yesterday's Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne was rigged, as there were last year.

It was clear that Irvine took his first GP win, after 82 attempts, fair and square.

No matter that the Mercedes McLarens, their refuelling crews dressed in black and silver suits and black helmets which made them look like Darth Vader, had the race shot to bits after 14 laps as they built a 20-second lead.

A McLaren one-two looked inevitable, but we got a scintillating grand prix and a victory ceremony, with three of the most likable people in Formula One spraying the champagne on the mob below.

For McLaren, first David Coulthard's car failed with hydraulic and perhaps gearbox problems, then Mika Hakkinen's, after battling on for a few laps more, retired with unspecified problems which looked a lot like Coulthard's.

The grim-faced McLaren empire slowly closed up shop and could only watch the drama unfolding on the track. It would have left a bitter taste in their mouths. They had dominated the meeting from the first practice session on Thursday and had been head and shoulders above the rest.

But while the cats are in the garage, the mice will play, and play they did.

It was one of the great grands prix, although just eight of the 24 cars finished.

Even before the start, the drama was on, with both Stewart Ford cars catching fire on the grid when their electrics self-immolated.

Then when the cars were rolling off the grid for the new formation lap, Michael Schumacher's Ferrari stalled and he had to be push-started, which meant he was relegated to the back of the grid.

He made one of his magnificent charges through the field and, with the help of the safety car, which came out twice after accidents, closed on the leaders, and an improbable win was in the wind.

A bigger stink than last year's was festering in the wings. Had Schumacher made it to Irvine's exhaust pipes, Ferrari team orders were that Eddie pull over and let him win.

Thankfully for the blood pressure of the bookies, who would have been holding a bagful of bets on Schumacher, his rear tyre shredded and he just made it back to the pits for a new one.

Then as he mounted another attack he lost his gears, which are controlled by two flipper switches on the steering wheel. He pitted twice before he could get a new steering wheel fitted, spelling the end of his chances.

All that was left for him to do was set the fastest lap, the second last. By then the roar of the crowd was growing for Irvine.

Everyone knows the job Eddie has to do and to see him freed of his contractual obligations and just drive was one of the best sights in Formula One for quite some time.

He did it in style, building gaps on second-placed Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan), only to lose them when the safety car came out.

But he didn't get rattled. Nor would he. For all the jokes and the bluff, he's a seasoned campaigner and a tough competitor. He is the man, after all, who was punched in the head by Ayrton Senna one year at Suzuka after the maestro thought Irvine had not shown sufficient respect and pulled over when the Brazilian came up behind him.

After the race Irvine said with a big grin on his face: "I just want to thank Michael [Schumacher] for doing all the testing so that the car would be so reliable."

He had made some significant changes to the car and it was different to Schumacher's.

"All weekend me and my engineer have been working away doing our own thing," Irvine said. "We were convinced we were going the right way and, apart from the McLarens, we proved we were.

"Even on Friday I felt the car was good and I couldn't understand why we were slow.

"Saturday again it felt good, but I couldn't go quick and even today it felt good, it was a little bit unstable, a little bit quick changing direction, but the balance felt good. It was fantastic and it is the best car I have ever driven."

His main problem had been near the end when he was trying to lap Ricardo Zonta, whose BAR car was blowing oil out the back.

"I was getting worried," Irvine said. "I thought if that thing blows I could go off on the oil." He snuck past just before the BAR blew up.

He wouldn't concede that the McLarens would have won the race had they stayed on the track.

"No, it was part of my tactics," he said. "I wanted them to run hard so they would get tired."

In the last few laps he was "plodding around", thinking of all the people he had to thank. "I won't name them or we will be here all night. But there have been a lot."

His sister was in pit lane to hug him but not his dad.

"I'm glad my dad wasn't here because he never comes to my first wins," Irvine said.

The sheer joy of his win tended to overshadow the good work of the Jordan team and Frentzen's drive. And the man he replaced, Ralf Schumacher, who in turn replaced Frentzen at Williams, also drove well, especially in the closing stages when bits started falling off his car, making it unstable.

Ralf has matured greatly, from the fast hothead who could never finish a race, into a young man with ability.

He has a tough year ahead at Williams, but next year, when they get their new BMW engine to replace the Renault-sourced one, he will be a force in F1.

The McLaren empire will be back in Brazil in three weeks. Team boss Ron Dennis said: "Obviously it was very disappointing. But I take satisfaction from our competitiveness. We will work hard to address the reliability problems between now and the Brazilian Grand Prix."

The bland words hide the devastation McLaren must feel. They aren't used to losing two cars in a GP to engine problems.

Ferrari know they were dreadful in practice and qualifying and were two seconds off the pace of the McLarens. They dodged a bullet in Melbourne but may not be so lucky in Brazil.